Bridge Players Theatre Company stages 'Crowns'

Mother Shaw, played by Lois Alexander, right, tries to help Yolanda (Trystan Johnson) gain an appreciation for her heritage in the Bridge Players Theatre Company's production of Regina Taylor's "Crowns."

In “Company,” Stephen Sondheim’s ironic musical about love in the modern urban world, one cynical woman with too much money and too little love in her life snarls a song line that usually gets a laugh: “Does anyone still wear a hat?”

Of course, they do, and many do it with great style and flair! One show that celebrates the joys of hats is Regina Taylor’s “Crowns,” now heading into its third and final weekend in a new production by Burlington’s Bridge Players Theatre Company at its current home at Broad Street Methodist Church.

Although the show, one of the most frequently produced in the United States, played at Princeton’s McCarter in 2002, director Bernard DiCasimirro didn’t encounter it until he attended a semi-annual community theatre festival in Charleston, S.C., in 2007, when a production by a Texas company won first place.

“I work with many area theaters, and I wanted to have a production closer to home,” DiCasimirrow says. “It’s a show about roots and heritage, and it brings a much-needed positive message.

“I thought that Bridge Players, founded in 1976, and which now usually does five productions a year, would be a fine home for it because they are such an active and welcoming group and so in touch with the local African-American community,” DiCasimirro says.

He says that in order to bring this intensely personal story closer to his audience, he abandoned the traditional proscenium arch in favor of a theatre-in-the-round approach and moved the audience closer to the performers.

The story is about Yolanda (played by Trystan Johnson), a young Brooklyn woman whose brother Teddy has recently been killed in street violence. She is sent to the South for a visit to Mother Shaw (Lois Alexander), who is part of a socially and religiously active community rich in appreciation for values and the honoring of traditions, which include the wearing of hats chosen carefully for every occasion. In fact, the hats sometimes become the occasion.

“Listen, never touch my hat. Admire it from a distance,” says one character, a minister’s wife who admits to owning about 200 hats. Another character coins the term “hattitude” to explain how special hats can create special people.

“Hats for church-going or socializing or special family events aren’t a new idea or unique to the African-American community,” DiCasimirro says, “but their tradition in America grew out of the tradition of African women who adorned their heads. It’s a way of bringing the past into the present, of honoring the spirit of past generations.”

Yolanda, tough and streetwise, comes from a world very different from the life she encounters and gradually learns about through her unwilling participation in Mother Shaw’s environment. The past comes to life through Mother Shaw and three other women, Wanda, Velma and Jeanette, who explain what was and what is in their society.

Yolanda is at first reluctant to give up what has become her personal style and says things to Mother Shaw like, “I don’t want to be boxed in by some dead or dying traditions!” Mother Shaw, in turn, wants Yolanda to see a bigger picture of life and its potential.

Music, especially traditional hymns, jazz and even rap, are major parts of the storytelling, and DiCasimirro credits musical director Diana Dorhmann with expanding the score to include even more music than most other productions.

That seems like a fine idea to Alexander, who plays Mother Shaw and is involved with music in her work at Abundant Life Church in Trenton, where her husband is pastor. She believes music is a way to communicate universally, and she relishes her musical moments in the show, which include the songs “This Little Light of Mine” and “On the Battleship of the Lord.”

“Music has been a part of my life since my childhood,” Alexander says. “I remember us singing along with Mahalia Jackson or James Cleveland and having great fellowship with others through that music.” Her interest in theater has been rejuvenated by her participation in this production, which she describes as “joyous, fantastic.”

“My father was a pastor and my mother a missionary, and we didn’t have much to do with theater, but I developed an interest in school that has now been revived,” Alexander says.

“It’s a real challenge to play Mother Shaw, who is a very well-seasoned and no-nonsense woman who does enjoy a good laugh,” Alexander adds.

“She has a great memory for the events of the past, which she experienced first-hand. She talks about the days before, during and after the civil rights movement and reminds Yolanda about some of the names that were important in the past and deserve to be remembered and celebrated always. She has endured the pain of living in a world where there were signs that said ‘For whites only,’ and she is now both a leader and a kind of historian in her community.

“My one fear is that people will think that I’m as old as Mother Shaw,” Alexander says. “I’m NOT!”